Featured Research

from universities, journals, and other organizations

Global warming threat to coral reefs: Can some species adapt?

Date:

March 10, 2012

Source:

University of New South Wales

Summary:

Coral reefs are among the ecosystems most severely threatened by global warming, but hopeful new evidence has emerged that some coral species may be able to adapt to warmer oceans. Researchers now report on coral populations which unexpectedly survived a massive bleaching event in 2010 in Southeast Asian waters and had previously experienced severe bleaching during an event in 1998.

Related Articles

In a study published in the journal PLoS One, an international team of researchers reports that coral populations which unexpectedly survived a massive bleaching event in 2010 in South-East Asian waters had previously experienced severe bleaching during an event in 1998.

The team analysed what happened at three sites during the 2010 event and found that in Indonesia, corals responded to higher sea temperatures in a typical way, with fast-growing branching species -- such as staghorn corals -- suffering severe die-offs. But at sites monitored in Singapore and Malaysia, the usual trend was reversed: normally susceptible colonies of fast-growing Acropora corals appeared healthy and fully pigmented, while most colonies of massive coral were severely bleached.

"Mass coral-bleaching events, caused by a breakdown in the relationship between the coral animals and their symbiotic algae, are strongly correlated with unusually high sea temperatures and have led to widespread reef degradation in recent decades," notes lead author Dr James Guest, currently a joint research fellow at the UNSW Centre for Marine Bio-innovation and the Advanced Environmental Biotechnology Centre at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University.

"The severity of these events varies considerably but until now we've seen one consistent trend: certain types of coral tend to be more resistant to bleaching than others. This has led to the prediction that hardier, slow-growing massive species will replace less hardy, fast-growing branching species on reefs in the future.

"But during the 2010 event the normal hierarchy of species susceptibility was reversed in some places. Corals at our Indonesian study site in Pulau Weh, Sumatra, followed the usual pattern, with around 90% of colonies of fast-growing species dying. But the pattern was the opposite at study sites in Singapore and Malaysia, even though sea-temperature data showed that the magnitude of thermal stress was similar at all sites.

"This suggests that the thermal history of these sites may have played an important role in determining the bleaching severity in 2010."

University of New South Wales. "Global warming threat to coral reefs: Can some species adapt?." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 10 March 2012. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120310145957.htm>.

University of New South Wales. (2012, March 10). Global warming threat to coral reefs: Can some species adapt?. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 3, 2015 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120310145957.htm

University of New South Wales. "Global warming threat to coral reefs: Can some species adapt?." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120310145957.htm (accessed March 3, 2015).

More From ScienceDaily

More Earth & Climate News

Featured Research

Mar. 3, 2015 — Researchers have developed a new way of rapidly screening yeasts that could help produce more sustainable biofuels. The new technique could also be a boon in the search for new ways of deriving ... full story

Mar. 3, 2015 — For almost a century, scientists have been puzzled by a process that is crucial to much of the life in Earth's oceans: Why does calcium carbonate, the tough material of seashells and corals, ... full story

Mar. 3, 2015 — Major cities in the UK are falling behind their international counterparts in terms of their use of smart technologies, according to a new study. The research has found that smart cities in the UK, ... full story

Mar. 3, 2015 — To simulate chimp behavior, scientists created a computer model based on equations normally used to describe the movement of atoms and molecules in a confined space. An interdisciplinary research ... full story

Mar. 3, 2015 — Rather than just waiting patiently for any pollinator that comes their way to start the next generation of seeds, some plants appear to recognize the best suitors and 'turn on' to increase the chance ... full story

Mar. 3, 2015 — Methane emissions are strongly reduced in lakes with anoxic bottom waters. But – contrary to what has previously been assumed – methane removal is not always due to archaea or anaerobic bacteria. ... full story

Mar. 2, 2015 — Hungry, plant-eating insects may limit the ability of forests to take up elevated levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, reducing their capacity to slow human-driven climate change, a new study ... full story

Mar. 2, 2015 — Scientists are reporting advances on how to one day make solar cells stronger, lighter, more flexible and less expensive when compared with the current silicon or germanium technology on the ... full story

Related Stories

Oct. 29, 2013 — Coral reefs may be able to adapt to moderate climate warming, improving their chance of surviving through the end of this century, if there are large reductions in carbon dioxide emissions, according ... full story

Sep. 29, 2013 — Israel’s southern Red Sea resort of Eilat, one of whose prime attractions is its colorful and multi-shaped underwater coral reefs, may have a clear advantage in the future over rival coral-viewing ... full story

June 1, 2013 — Coral reefs can take more than a decade to recover from catastrophic climatic events, with some species taking up to 13 years to recolonise their original habitats, scientists have ... full story

Nov. 16, 2010 — Coral reefs suffered record losses as a consequence of high ocean temperatures in the tropical Atlantic and Caribbean in 2005 according to the most comprehensive documentation of basin-scale ... full story

Oct. 20, 2010 — International marine scientists say that a huge coral death which has struck Southeast Asian and Indian Ocean reefs over recent months has highlighted the urgency of controlling global carbon ... full story

ScienceDaily features breaking news and videos about the latest discoveries in health, technology, the environment, and more -- from major news services and leading universities, scientific journals, and research organizations.